Eugene studies West 13th bike lane

Sunday

Oct 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Eugene residents with opinions about removing on-street parking in order to add a bike lane on more than a mile of West 13th Avenue may want to attend a Monday evening meeting.

Residents will be asked at the meeting about the idea for a bike lane on a long stretch of the well-traveled, one-way street, between Washington and Garfield streets. The stretch runs in front of the Lane Events Center.

The city is seeking public input because the city next year will repave the segment, and could add the bike lane and make other changes as part of the construction project.

A bike lane on the 13th Avenue segment, which carries eastbound traffic, is recommended in the city’s long-range transportation and bicycle and pedestrian plans, Eugene transportation planner Reed Dunbar said.

The construction project “would allow us to implement our long-range plans, but before we do that we want to test the recommendation (for bike lanes) with the community,” he said.

Residents at the meeting also will learn about other changes contemplated as part of the construction project.

To have enough room for the 6-foot-wide bike lane, curbside parking for about 105 vehicles on the south side of the street would have to be eliminated between Garfield and Van Buren streets, Dunbar said.

City parking counts show that the vast majority of the spaces on both sides of 13th Avenue aren’t used, he said, and there is enough room on the north side of the street to accommodate all motorists who park on the street.

A bike lane on the western segment of 13th Avenue would complement an existing bicycle lane, which runs east from Lincoln Street to the University of Oregon, Dunbar said.

Other changes to be discussed at the meeting include pedestrian crossing enhancements and possible ways to improve bicycling through the Lane Events Center, home of the county fairgrounds, he said. The bicycling improvements would better mark the route bicyclists can use to reach the Fern Ridge Bike Path, south of the events center, and Amazon Creek.

The 13th Avenue repaving will be among the first projects financed by the $43 million property-tax-supported bond measure that Eugene voters approved last year.

The measure will pay for an estimated 76 street repair projects and several bicycle and pedestrian improvements over the next five years.

The city has steadily been adding bike lanes, often by removing on-street parking, to fulfill its bike friendly goals.

Sometimes the efforts generate controversy, such as the repaving of 24th Avenue a couple of years ago. A hotly debated proposal to add bike lanes on a stretch of Willamette Street in south Eugene, where on street parking does not currently exist, is expected to make its way to the City Council next month.

Counts of parked cars on 13th Avenue during July, August and earlier this month showed that the parking area to be eliminated is barely occupied by cars, Dunbar said.

On average, about 9.5 cars were parked on the south side of the street, even though there is enough room there to accommodate 105 vehicles, he said.

There are 158 estimated spaces on the north side of 13th Avenue, Dunbar said. That would provide more than enough room to fit vehicles from both sides of the street on the north side, he said.

However, if people parked on the north side of the street they would have to cross 13th Avenue to get to homes on the south side, Dunbar said.

On a similar street repaving project, on West 18th Avenue, the city installed a pedestrian island in the middle of the street to help people get across, Dunbar said.

“Part of the conversation that we will have at the (Monday) meeting is, ‘How do we facilitate safer street crossings?’?” Dunbar said.

There is no parking on the south side of 13th Avenue, in front of the Lane Events Center, and beyond to Washington Street. There is parking on the north side of the street near the Events Center, except during the annual Lane County Fair, which takes place in July.

Regardless of what happens with the bike-lane concept, the city will make other changes on the 13th Avenue stretch, Dunbar said.

Audible pedestrian crossing signals that tell people when they can cross the street will be installed at the intersections of Chambers, Monroe, Polk, Jefferson and Washington streets, he said.

New handicapped accessible sidewalk ramps will be installed at street corners in the project area.

City officials will develop design concepts based on what they hear at Monday’s meeting and from an online survey, Dunbar said. Officials also expect to get input from the Jefferson Westside neighborhood association.

A follow-up public meeting will likely take place in November to gather opinion before the city develops a final design early next year, Dunbar said.

The repaving project will be one of the first to be completed next year, he said.

The goal is to have it done before the county fair, which begins on July 23.

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